News Release

CRDF announces launch of first grant-making science foundation in the Republic of Georgia

Georgian-U.S. joint research competition marks event

Grant and Award Announcement

U.S. Civilian Research and Development Foundation

Arlington, VA – March 18, 2002 - The U.S. Civilian Research and Development Foundation (CRDF) announces the establishment of the Georgian Research and Development Foundation (GRDF).

The GRDF is the Republic of Georgia’s first, independent grant-making science foundation. It was created by the CRDF in cooperation with the Department of Science and Technology of Georgia as part of a U.S. Department of State program of scientific and technical assistance to Georgia.

The foundation’s goal is to develop the Georgian scientific-engineering community’s potential through support of research and development projects on a competitive, merit-driven basis.

The GRDF kicks off its activities with a Georgian-U.S. Bilateral Grants Program (BGP), to be administered jointly with the CRDF. The competition will offer grants to joint teams of Georgian and U.S. scientists to conduct research in all areas of basic and applied science. To help the Georgian scientific community prepare for the competition, the GRDF plans to organize a series of proposal writing seminars at the major research institutions in that country. Later this year, the GRDF and the CRDF plan to open a second competition to fund U.S.-Georgian scientific workshops.

Located in Tbilisi, the GRDF is a private, nonprofit organization patterned on the Armenian National Foundation for Science and Advanced Technologies and the Moldovan Research and Development Association, both of which were also established with CRDF support.

Funding for CRDF activities in Georgia, including the Georgian Research and Development Foundation, is provided by the U.S. Department of State.

Further information on the GRDF and the Georgian-U.S. BGP is available upon request or by visiting http://www.crdf.org/Centers/grdf.html and http://www.crdf.org/News/grdfbgp02.html on the CRDF’s web site.

The U.S. Civilian Research and Development Foundation for the Independent States of the Former Soviet Union, founded in 1995, is a private, nonprofit organization created by the United States Government as an American response to the declining state of science and engineering in the former Soviet Union (FSU). The CRDF seeks to address this issue by fostering opportunities for collaborative projects between FSU and U.S. researchers.

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